'Departed' is best picture; Scorsese finally wins

Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker do the expected and take acting honors

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Departed" took the best-picture prize at Sunday's 79th Academy Awards, and the film's director, Martin Scorsese, finally won an Oscar for helming the gangster film.

Helen Mirren did the expected and took home the best-actress prize for her portrayal of Elizabeth II in "The Queen," from Walt Disney Co.'s
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Miramax unit. "The Queen" centers on Elizabeth's slow response in gauging Britain's grief after the death of Princess Diana in 1997.

The same was true for the best-actor winner Forest Whitaker for playing brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." From News Corp.'s
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Fox Searchlight unit, "King of Scotland" Whitaker chronicled Amin's rise to power and his volatile personality. Whitaker beat out eight-time loser Peter O'Toole, 74, who was passed over for his role in "Venus."

"The Departed" took four out of the five awards for which it was nominated, as screenwriter William Monahan won for best adapted screenplay and the film also won for best editing.

Scorsese was greeted with a standing ovation as he took the stage to accept the directing award, winning on his sixth try. Celebrated directors Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas teamed up to hand Scorsese his honor.

"Could you just check the envelope?" Scorsese joked to his contemporaries, whom he said he'd known for 37 years. Scorsese previously was nominated for directing such films as "Raging Bull" and "Goodfellas" but often lost out to actors-turned-directors such as Robert Redford and Kevin Costner. It seemed clear, though, that Scorsese finally would win after he took the Directors Guild of America award recently.

"The Departed" focuses on the story of two moles -- one within the Massachusetts State Police and one within a Boston crime gang -- who try to root each other out. The film had an all-star cast that included Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon.

Warner's time

Its victory capped off a big night for Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.
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The studio had a hand in nine Oscars. Next was Viacom Inc.'s
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Paramount Pictures unit, whose films took five honors.

In other awards, Jennifer Hudson's meteoric rise from rejected "American Idol" contestant to Oscar winner was complete as the young star won the best-supporting-actress award for "Dreamgirls." Hudson was the prohibitive favorite to win the honor for playing the jilted Effie White. Hudson had brought down the house during the film's signature number, "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going."

"Dreamgirls," a musical from Paramount and its newly acquired DreamWorks property, was the first film ever to secure the most nominations, with eight, without also claiming a spot among the five movies vying for the best-picture award.

The film secured one other award along with Hudson's honor but failed to take home a statuette for best original song despite commanding three of the five nominations. That honor went to Melissa Etheridge for her song "I Need To Wake Up" from the Al Gore documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

"An Inconvenient Truth" also took the Oscar for best documentary.

Arkin on a roll

The 72-year-old Alan Arkin took the best-supporting-actor prize for his role as the drug-abusing patriarch of a dysfunctional family in "Little Miss Sunshine." Arkin's victory was something of a surprise. He beat out pre-show favorite Eddie Murphy from "Dreamgirls," as well as Djimon Hounsou of "Blood Diamond," Jackie Earle Haley from "Little Children" and "The Departed's" Mark Wahlberg.

It was the second award in as many days for Arkin, who also won the Independent Spirit honor for "Little Miss Sunshine" on Saturday. The feature, also from Fox Searchlight, took the best-picture prize at the Independent Spirit award.

"Little Miss Sunshine," which chronicles a family's quest to get from New Mexico to California for a beauty pageant for girls, also won the Oscar for best original screenplay.

The Warner Bros. film "Happy Feet" won the Oscar for the best animated feature, besting the Disney/Pixar entry "Cars" and Sony Pictures'
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"Monster House."

The year's top-grossing film, Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," was passed over in most categories for nominations but did win an award for best visual effects. The film raked in $432 million in U.S. receipts and $1.06 billion worldwide.

First-time host Ellen DeGeneres generally stayed away from controversy, though she did stop to note that "Dreamgirls'" Hudson once was voted off the TV talent contest "American Idol" but America actually voted for Al Gore, who was in the audience along with the producers of "An Inconvenient Truth." DeGeneres was alluding to Gore's hotly 2000 contested presidential contest with George W. Bush in which he won the popular vote but conceded the electoral-college tally after Supreme Court intervention.

DeGeneres also noted the diversity of the nominees, coming from Mexico, Japan, Spain and Great Britain -- with some Americans in the mix as well. She added that racism and sexual orientation were hot topics this year.

"I want to put this out there, that if there were no blacks, Jews or gays, there would be no Oscar," she quipped.

There was no clear favorite among the group of films nominated for best picture. While Paramount Vantage's "Babel" got seven nominations, few were willing to anoint it as best picture. That film's score was honored, but it got no other awards. There was a case to be made for several of the others, even the foreign-language "Letters from Iwo Jima."

Oscar on hot seat

As a result, there was some concern over whether the Oscars' television ratings would continue to drop, as they had in the past two years. While this year's crop of films have proven to be more popular than last year's group, which was led by best picture "Crash" and top box-office draw "Brokeback Mountain," it was unclear whether interest simply was waning for Hollywood's annual pat on the back. See full story.

None of the five nominees was considered a bona fide blockbuster, although "The Departed" did manage to score $131.5 million in domestic receipts. Each of the other four failed to crack the $60 million mark.

Further, three of this year's best-picture nominees -- "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Departed" and "Babel" -- were in theaters relatively early in the season and already were out on DVD by the time the ceremony was held Sunday. See full story.

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